Emily Tubman

Emily Thomas Tubman (21 March 1794-9 June 1885) was an American philanthropist and plantation owner who was best-known for her efforts to free her slaves to fulfill her late husband's wishes. She fought to free her slaves with the support of the American Colonization Society of Henry Clay, and the grandfather of Liberian president William Tubman was one of the slaves that she freed.

Biography
Emily Thomas Tubman was born on 21 March 1794 in Augusta, Georgia, United States. She married Augusta plantation owner Richard Tubman, and his death in 1832 in his wife's arms on a trip to Frankfort, Kentucky led to Emily inheriting his plantation. Emily promised her dying husband to make the yearly trip to Kentucky to avoid the yellow fever that accompanied the heat in Augusta, and she also promised to free their estate's slaves. Tubman had to fight for this, as Nat Turner's failed 1831 rebellion led to strict laws being passed that removed the possibility of emancipating slaves. Tubman made appeals to the state legislature and gave a $10,000 gift to the University of Georgia, but to no avail. She then sought the assistance of American Colonization Society leader Henry Clay, and Clay decided to assist her. Tubman gave her slaves two choices: go to the new colony of Liberia, or they could stay in the USA with their own parcels of land. The 68 who decided to go to Liberia took her last name and named their community "Tubman Hill" after her; 20th century Liberian president William Tubman was descended from her freed slaves. Later, she became a charter member of the First Christian Church of Augusta and a summer member of the church in Frankfort, Kentucky, and she paid for the First Christian Church of Frankfort's reconstruction in 1872 after it burnt down in a fire. She died on 9 June 1885 at the age of 91.